


Sleeping With The Fishes

by Immamausoleum



Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Polar (2019)
Genre: Idk what to tag this as, Other, They don't belong in bowls!!, This is an absolutely useless fic about Duncan Vizla settling into retired life, What can I say I like fishkeeping, and I like Duncan Vizla, and learning how to take care of his fish, completely and entirely self indulgent, like that's it he's just taking care of his fish and trying to enjoy the quiet life, there's not even any ships what am I doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 17:45:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18266297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immamausoleum/pseuds/Immamausoleum
Summary: Duncan sits on his porch, exhaling smoke as his eyes scan the page in front of him. The person in the pet-shop gave him incorrect information. On second thought, he probably should have known it wasn’t as easy as he had been led to believe, buy the fish for five dollars a piece and throw them in a bowl with some water and decorations, feed them every few days, it’s too easy.Luckily, Duncan was a hit-man, and old habits die hard, which is why he came prepared as always. Research pays, whether it’s the details of your next target or the care of your impulse bought pet, and Duncan has always been thorough. It’s part of what made him so successful as a hitman.





	Sleeping With The Fishes

Duncan sits on his porch, exhaling smoke as his eyes scan the page in front of him. The person who ran the pet-shop gave him incorrect information. On second thought, he probably should have known it wasn’t as easy as he had been led to believe, buy the fish for five dollars a piece and throw them in a bowl with some water and decorations, feed them every few days, it’s too easy.  
Luckily, Duncan was a hit-man, and old habits die hard, which is why he came prepared as always. Research pays, whether it’s the details of your next target or the care of your impulse bought pet, and Duncan has always been thorough. It’s part of what made him so successful as a hitman. 

The book he bought provided much more useful information about his new charge than the petstore employee did, though he doesn’t blame him, the collage kid was under-paid to sell fish, not to be an expert on them. It turns out goldfish aren’t as easy to keep as they’re often advertised. Throughout his read of a book on fish keeping, he’s learned quite a few things that are entirely new to him. 

Carrassius auratus. That’s the Latin name for goldfish. They’re related to carp, and were domesticated from dinner to pets in China over 1,000 years past. They have been bred into many varieties, but the ones he has currently aren’t particularly fancy, simple comets, still once they are full grown they can reach up to the size of his forearm and live up to 20 years. That impresses him, seeing as they are currently not much longer than his thumb. 

Flicking his cigarette aside and stepping into the house, he walks over to their bowl and crouches before it, watching as they swim. They’re going to need a substantial upgrade. They don’t need a heater, they prefer cold temperatures as they are not tropical fish, but their pH balance should be kept between 7.0 and 8.4. He’s not sure what it’s at now, he doesn’t currently have the tester kit required to check, but judging by what the book says about their need for filtration systems and how much waste they put off, it’s definitely not that. It’s late, and the pet shop closes at 8pm.. For now he carefully lifts the bowl and does a partial change, pouring some of the water out (careful not to dump the fish into the sink) and replacing it with fresh water. City tap water would hurt them, according to the book, but well water like he has should be fine enough. The fish seem a bit upset by the disturbance but quickly settle once he returns the bowl to it’s place. That accomplished, he pulls out his fish keeping book and makes notes on the empty cover page.  
-Fish Tank, 40 Gal  
-Heavy Duty Filter  
-Decorations  
-pH Kit  
-Water Siphon  
-Medication  
The fish don’t show any signs of illnesses the book says are common, but it’s best to be prepared. That accomplished, he retires for the night. 

Determined not to do as badly a job of being a pet owner as he’d been with Rusty, he sets off the next morning, fishkeeping book tucked into his coat pocket. First, he looks over the tanks. There’s a sale on Aqueon brand tanks, not that money is an issue, and they look decent enough. He puts one into his cart and moves on. From there the cart continues to fill with items, first the necessary ones, filter, filter media, pH kit, medications and siphon, water conditioner, and then come the decorations. Those are somewhat harder to choose, there are so many options… 

When he returns home, he steps inside carefully holding the glass tank, which is full of the other items he purchased, each arranged in there so that the weight is evenly distributed. It wouldn’t do to crack the glass. First, he clears a space on a shelf, making sure that the tank will fit there, and that an outlet is near by. That accomplished, he begins to set things up. He rinses everything thoroughly, tank first, then filter, then gravel and decorations. That settled he fills the tank half-way, adding in gravel and decorations, as well as hooking up the filter where he wants it. It takes a few tries to get everything arranged in a way that looks nice, but once he does he adds more water, patiently walking back and forth with a pitcher from the sink to the tank until it is full. He then plugs in the filter, pouring in carefully measured water conditioner as the machine groans to life, noisy until it manages to fill it’s chamber with water. 

Feeling accomplished, he goes to the bowl his fish are in and gives them a few flakes of food for the day, watching with a small smile as they eat what they are given. The book says it’s best to let the tank run for a day or two so that the water can stabilize first before adding the fish in….. Which is the lesser of two evils? He doesn’t want them in the bowl for longer than they need to be, now that he’s learned as much as he has. But they haven’t died this far, so he decides he’ll wait a day. To be safe, he does another water change that night, and sets up the small bubble machine in their little bowl, seeing as that should provide aeration until the time for them to be introduced to the tank comes. 

That night as he lays in bed, he can still hear the gentle sound of the fish filter running, moving the water with a soft trickle. Surprisingly, it doesn’t annoy him. The sound is grounding, reminds him of exactly where he is, and it helps drown out the ringing he often gets in his ears whenever he settles down. For once his head isn’t clogged with thoughts and memories as he attempts sleep. It’s as simple as one moment he is awake, and the next he is not. 

When he wakes it’s to the same flashes of color and sensation, things that will haunt him no matter the niceties he chooses to surround himself with in his retirement, each morning he is reminded with his racing heart and cold sweat.. The sound of running water cuts through his disorientation, though. Socked feet reach down to meet the floor as he sits up, pushing hair from his face and taking a breath, allowing a moment to lament the way his body aches. Scar tissue that pulls and limbs that even healed will never be the same as they once had been. Stretching, he is met with several pops as his joints complain, and he stands with a yawn. He makes himself breakfast, and as he eats he looks over at the goldfish, thinking of what needs to be done.. He realizes he hasn’t named them yet. It was out of caution, at first. While he doubted they would share Rusty’s fate, he had been understandably hesitant this time around. He decides he’ll have to think on it, they’ll need good ones. 

When the time comes for him to transfer them into their new home, he first checks to be sure the pH levels have settled to something acceptable in the new tank, and that the temperatures are similar, (which they are seeing as they’ve both been in the same room for hours now.) That settled, he carefully pours both fish into the tank, as well as the water in their bowl. After that he simply watches as they dart around the new territory, hiding behind the fake plants and within the skull shaped cave cave for cover, before they grow bold and begin to explore. They look much better, he decides, in this setup. It’s a little big for them at the moment, but they will grow. He decides he looks forward to the day when they get to be as big as his forearm. He’ll have to do some research on how to build a backyard pond.. He has a few years to plan that, though. “That better? Welcome to your new home, Shark, Barracuda.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have any excuses I just wanted to explore this side of Duncan.


End file.
